The Prose Bowl: A Night Of Spoken Word with Get Lit
- The Crawford, 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
It’s a celebration of L.A. poetry at LAist with Get Lit - Words Ignite! In this new three-part live event series, Get Lit youth poets, standout local artists, and a nationally-renowned featured poet will get together for a night of spoken word performance hosted by Get Lit’s Mason Granger (he/him). Come early to enjoy sweet snacks from Recess Ice Cream, sips, a DJ set from Mike Merchant (he/him), and tons of cool people to connect with in the name of poetry. Drinks, music, and snacks start at 6:00 p.m. and the show kicks off at 7:00 p.m.
Join us for our series kickoff on Friday, September 8, with feature poet Olivia Gatwood.
GET LIT YOUTH POETS
- Pluto Saidkarie*
- Jasmine Minchez*
- Jonathan Smith*
- Naomi Farkas*
- Dharma Lemon
- Sakib Shahriar
- Raul Herrera
- Celia Douglas
- Christian Perfas
- Erica Almond
Upcoming Series Dates
ABOUT MASON GRANGER
Mason Granger is the Deputy Director at Get Lit. Originally from Philadelphia by way of Willingboro, NJ, Mason is a poet with 19+ years of professional experience on stage & in classrooms across 49 states and six countries as part of the performance poetry trio, The Mayhem Poets. In 2014, he created SlamFind, a digital platform to connect fans of poetry videos with the poets & live poetry venues where these videos are born. Connecting the poetry community to itself and the rest of the world continues to be the foundation of his work to this day.
Between 2016-2018, Mason was the official videographer for Poetry Slam Inc., producing several iconic poetry videos that continue to garner millions of views across multiple platforms. In the spirit of his mission of always keeping the ‘live’ in ‘live poetry’, he also hosted the weekly PoetNY open mic at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC from 2017-2019 while also serving as Executive Director of Bowery Arts & Science through 2019.
Now as a Los Angeles resident in his fourth year with Get Lit, Mason continues to pursue creative projects while helping to shape the future of spoken word poetry education in the state of California and beyond.
ABOUT OLIVIA GATWOOD
Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Olivia Gatwood has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery.
Her work historically focuses on stories about young womanhood as a site for obsession, intimacy, and hysteria, often pulling from horror and surrealism to depict a coming of age.
Olivia's performances have been featured on HBO, Huffington Post, MTV, VH1, and BBC among others. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review, among others. She is the author of two poetry collections, NEW AMERICAN BEST FRIEND and LIFE OF THE PARTY. She is the co-writer of the film THE GOVERNESSES alongside director Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco). Her debut novel, WHOEVER YOU ARE, HONEY, will be released in 2023. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
*2023-2024 Get Lit Players
The Get Lit Players (GLPs) are our award-winning performance troupe of youth poets. They’ve performed at the United Nations, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center and White House — to name a few! Every year they perform live for over 50,000 of their peers, and their videos have been watched online over 300 million times. Each of our Get Lit Players will spend the next year honing their skills and enjoying exciting and unique workshops, paid performance and networking opportunities, and a lifetime of support from Get Lit’s community.
ABOUT THE POETS
Dharma Lemon (she/her) is a writer and teaching artist from Los Angeles. Dharma is quirky and passionate. She writes about feminism, body positivity, the environment, and racial injustice. Dharma is inspired by writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Huey P. Newton, Patricia Smith, and Amari Baraka. Dharma has performed and taught workshops at UCLA, CAAM, and The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She has performed at Firedrill Fridays with celebrity activists like Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix, Rainn Wilson, and many others. She has also performed in "Artists for Amazonia '' with Kali Uchis, Barbara Streisand, Morgan Freeman, among others. Lemon has been published in GLAFF’s book titled “Bridges”, performed in the closing ceremony of GLAFF, and presented a “Tree of Life award” to Patricia Aquette. Dharma's passion doesn't just register in her writing but also her love for activism.
Raul Herrera - As a Mexican-American spoken-word artist, playwright and educator, Raul Herrera has been involved with Get Lit for over 10 years facilitating growth within students across the nation. Herrera has served the organization as a Get Lit Player, Literati Fellowship member, teaching artist, and is currently Get Lit’s Associate Director of Programming. In 2014, he received the Pentathlon award given to the overall speaker at the California State Championship of Speech and Debate for Community Colleges. His writing is featured in Get Lit Rising, Coiled Serpent published by Tia Chucha Press and, in 2017, he wrote Dante, a modern Hip-Hop adaptation of Dante’s Inferno, produced by Tim Robbins and The Actor’s Gang Theatre in Culver City. Raul plans on continuing his pursuits in screenwriting and education.
Celia Douglas (she/her) is a writer, artist, and educator from Southern California. She has performed on national poetry slam stages, such as Women of the World Poetry Slam ’21 (WOWPS) & Southern Fried Poetry Slam ’21. She has hosted a variety of open mics and led creative writing workshops across the United States and the United Kingdom. She proudly earned her B.A. in English specializing in poetry and performance at HBCU Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2018 and her M.A. Degree in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths College in London, England in 2020. Her favorite color is blue and she hosts a monthly open mic in the San Fernando Valley.
Christian Perfas is a spoken word and teaching artist born and raised in Red Hook, NY and currently based in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Going by the moniker "Soul Stuf" within the poetry community, Christian has been writing and performing poetry for over 7 years, honing his skills through institutions such as Palms Up Academy, Spoken Literature Art Movement, and The Community Literature Initiative. Christian has taught students of all ages and backgrounds through organizations such as Creative Acts, Young Storytellers, and The Story Pirates (and now, Get Lit - Words Ignite!) and has performed nationally on multiple book tours. Lastly, Christian is also a decorated performing artist: a former "Top 25 Poet of The World" at the Individual World Poetry Slam of 2018 and a two-time Write Club Story Slam Champion of Los Angeles.
Erica Almond is a Get Lit Alumni of 2013 — 2014. She competed in the Classic Slam both years with Cleveland High School, winning their first awarded title in 2014. This opportunity through Get Lit shaped her entire outlook on her world and voice. Along with possibilities of the Arts and Communication. With the confidence built from poetry, she became fearless in pursuing her dreams-becoming a dancer, a CSUN Communications Studies Graduate, and a Get Lit Teaching Artist today. She is moved beyond words to be back working with both Get Lit and the students. She hopes to make a deep impact within the community and inspire students to follow their greatest passions.
Sakib Shahriar is a political philosopher, fiction writer, and poet who keeps starting to dabble with new artistic mediums before mastering any of them. They find themselves most often writing about labor under capitalism, oppressive guilt and shame, the creative and political processes of writing, being Deshi and Muslim in the US, queer + trans struggle, and queer + trans joy. They're planning to try playwriting and guitar songwriting next!
ABOUT GET LIT
Los Angeles-based nonprofit GET LIT ignites student engagement, literacy, and young voices around the globe using the power of spoken word, technology, and community.
ACCOMMODATIONS
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